jb4570
Gold Member
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2005
- Messages
- 7,062
Hi All,
There has been a lot of discussion about stag handles in the last week or two. Some folks were unhappy with the looks of the stag handles that were on their new knives and some folks were very happy. We must remember that there is going to be variation in any natural material.
If you don't know by now Stag is my favorite handle material. One of the reasons is that no two knives will be exactly the same. Ok, now that I have said that I do like my stag handle knives to be gnarly and bumpy with lots of dark bark coloration, am I going to get that every time? (NO). No mass production knife maker could afford to make every knife with stag handles the way I like it on every knife they make. Why do I say that, because they would have to toss more antler material than they would be able to use, what a waste and the cost would be astronomical to the customer.
I'm sure that company's like Buck buy their stag material in Bulk and try to utilize as much of it as possible. So some handles made from an antler will have ruff dark bark and some handle will end up smooth with no dark bark and some will have no bark at all. If you are a company and need to build 250 knives with stag handles and have to stop and match every handle that time lost will cost more $$$ to build and so on...you get the picture, you may not like it; but, you get it, time = $$$! I hope by now you are beginning to understand why some stag knives in a production run may not have the look you were hoping for....but, in a large stag run you getting the knife of your dreams every time is not going to happen.
Now, I will say that if I order a custom knife or even a semi-custom knife, like Buck's CS 110's and tell them what I want the knife to look like then I expect to get what I asked for or better be told that they could not make what I wanted up front....I don't want an unhappy surprise to be in the package when I open it (I know it happens). It is a bad situation for both the customer and the knife maker...unhappy customers may take their business elsewhere. Also returns and reworks cost both parties $$$ and heart burn. Enough said on this for now. I hope this will spur more discussion on this topic.
Here are some photo's of some stag 112's
In this first set of three I set the focus on different handles
top handle
Mid handle
Bottom handle
Ok, now here is a set from the Custom shop and the phone order for both was for gnarly, bumpy, dark bark Sambar stag.
Remember you don't always get what you want, "Communication is King", if you are unhappy call and let folks know or live with it. When using natural material like stag no company can control what an antler is going to grow like
jb4570
There has been a lot of discussion about stag handles in the last week or two. Some folks were unhappy with the looks of the stag handles that were on their new knives and some folks were very happy. We must remember that there is going to be variation in any natural material.
If you don't know by now Stag is my favorite handle material. One of the reasons is that no two knives will be exactly the same. Ok, now that I have said that I do like my stag handle knives to be gnarly and bumpy with lots of dark bark coloration, am I going to get that every time? (NO). No mass production knife maker could afford to make every knife with stag handles the way I like it on every knife they make. Why do I say that, because they would have to toss more antler material than they would be able to use, what a waste and the cost would be astronomical to the customer.
I'm sure that company's like Buck buy their stag material in Bulk and try to utilize as much of it as possible. So some handles made from an antler will have ruff dark bark and some handle will end up smooth with no dark bark and some will have no bark at all. If you are a company and need to build 250 knives with stag handles and have to stop and match every handle that time lost will cost more $$$ to build and so on...you get the picture, you may not like it; but, you get it, time = $$$! I hope by now you are beginning to understand why some stag knives in a production run may not have the look you were hoping for....but, in a large stag run you getting the knife of your dreams every time is not going to happen.
Now, I will say that if I order a custom knife or even a semi-custom knife, like Buck's CS 110's and tell them what I want the knife to look like then I expect to get what I asked for or better be told that they could not make what I wanted up front....I don't want an unhappy surprise to be in the package when I open it (I know it happens). It is a bad situation for both the customer and the knife maker...unhappy customers may take their business elsewhere. Also returns and reworks cost both parties $$$ and heart burn. Enough said on this for now. I hope this will spur more discussion on this topic.
Here are some photo's of some stag 112's
In this first set of three I set the focus on different handles
top handle
Mid handle
Bottom handle
Ok, now here is a set from the Custom shop and the phone order for both was for gnarly, bumpy, dark bark Sambar stag.
Remember you don't always get what you want, "Communication is King", if you are unhappy call and let folks know or live with it. When using natural material like stag no company can control what an antler is going to grow like
jb4570
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